THE SWEET SHOP, MAIN STREET — Hard candy on a stick, and just sweet enough to make you feel euphoric. Every child in Westler knows exactly how much a penny buys, and not one of them has ever been wrong about it. Ask Mrs. Dulcie Bramble for one and she will hand it over before you've finished asking.
What's In It
- Sugar — a great deal of it, and nothing fancy
- Water, cold, from the crick
- A spoon of vinegar, so the candy sets clear instead of grainy
- Pumlick essence, pressed from the pumlick berry
- A drop of beet juice for the color
- Twigs, whittled smooth and boiled clean, for the sticks
How It's Made
- Sugar, water, and the spoon of vinegar go in the copper pot over the fire. Stir until the sugar is gone, then leave it be.
- Let it boil hard. There is no thermometer in Westler, so you test it the old way: drop a bead of the syrup into a cup of cold water. When the bead goes hard and cracks like glass between your fingers, it's ready. A bead that bends is not.
- Off the fire. Stir in the pumlick essence and the beet juice quick, before it stiffens.
- Pour it in coins onto a greased slab of marble. Lay a whittled stick into each one while it's still soft and give it a half-turn so the candy grabs hold.
- Leave them until they're hard clean through, then wrap each in waxed paper and stand them in the jar, sticks up.
Where You'll Find It
In the tall jar on the Sweet Shop counter, year-round. Dropped into the penny-sweet paper bags. Sold from a tray at festival time, when Mrs. Bramble sets up outside her own door because the shop can't hold the crowd.